


Maybe

by TheGreatLibraryFangirl (Mazeem)



Series: Gaps in Canon [1]
Category: The Great Library Series - Rachel Caine
Genre: Gen, canon tweaking, help is that portero's first name, i got it off tvtropes, the final 9 postulants
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-27
Updated: 2019-01-27
Packaged: 2019-10-17 17:24:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,429
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17564813
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mazeem/pseuds/TheGreatLibraryFangirl
Summary: Set in Ink and Bone, just before they find out about Oxford. Addresses a hole that had been annoying me:Why had none of them (these curious, suspicious, exceptional children) ever realised that Wolfe had no published works or Scholarly record?





	Maybe

**Author's Note:**

> This is set in chapter 5 of Ink and Bone, and replaces the scene where the summoning bells drag them all out of bed. 
> 
> I would give better references but I only have Ink and Bone on Kindle, sorry!

Jess found it almost impossible to concentrate in class the morning after his and Morgan’s revealing conversation. Every time he so much as thought about looking in her direction, his skin prickled. He should be scared of her, now. She knew … well, enough about him to get people asking questions.

But so did he, about her. 

An Obscurist. 

She trusted him. 

The soft weight of having somebody knowing his secret finally sat between them like a blanket. A space to breathe. 

Which, he thought savagely, was absolutely ridiculous and irrational of him. Would she use her knowledge against him if benefitted her? Would an ‘in’ into the foremost book smuggling ring be enough of a trade, for someone to let an Obscurist slip away?

That made his blood run icy cold. It wouldn’t be enough, not from what she’d told him about the slavery that awaited her, but oh, he could see a world in which she tried it anyway and they both ended up imprisoned. 

(He’d spent his entire morning swinging between these two extremes. It was madness.)

“Brightwell.” Wolfe’s voice stabbed into his thoughts. Jess jerked his head up, and knew as soon as he met Wolfe’s eyes that he was in trouble.

Jess fumbled the complicated Codex filtering query, as they had both known he would, and Wolfe shifted his glare to Dario. 

“I’ve actually got a question,” Dario said instead of answering. His facial expression was smooth and carefree but his voice was tight and nervous, and Jess felt his stomach twist in response. “And it _is_ to do with searching the Codex.”

Wolfe raised his eyebrows. 

Jess saw Khalila’s fingers slip suddenly on her quill, and he realised with a kind of fascinated horror that she knew what Dario was about to ask. 

“So, I searched your name in the Codex, Scholar Wolfe. I wondered what your speciality was, since you’ve never said.” Actual beads of sweat were glistening on Dario’s forehead, as Wolfe’s silent stare pinned him like a butterfly on a dissection board. “And you’re not in the Codex. Anywhere. Not your name, not your work. Nothing.” 

 _What?_ Jess fought the urge to grab his Codex and check, immediately. 

Wolfe folded his arms. “Well done, Santiago, you can perform a basic name search worthy of perhaps a seven-year-old child.” His voice dripped with sarcasm. “Postulant Danton, what could cause a blank author search?”

“Restricted access,” Danton responded smartly. Jess kicked himself for not thinking of that. Of course. They had all learnt over the past few months that there were texts that postulants weren’t permitted to look at. 

“No, a blocked search looks different,” Dario argued. He visibly swallowed when Wolfe raised his eyebrows again, the inference of “ _And what have you been looking at?_ ” ringing loudly and clearly without the need for speech. 

“It’s not a blocked search.” Khalila’s voice was nervous, but insistent. “I asked to borrow a Scholar’s Codex one day, just to check.”

‘One day’? How long had she and Dario known about this? Was this something Jess should have thought of? Searching for their teacher?

Wolfe’s gaze fell onto Khalila like a searchlight, and the intensity in his voice unsettled Jess’ stomach even further. “Whose Codex did you use?”

Khalila’s shoulders straightened. “It was a gold band Scholar. It should bypass any restrictions.” 

“ _Who was it, Self_?” The venomous urgency in Wolfe’s voice hollowed out the already silent classroom into a vortex of tension. Jess watched, fascinated despite himself, as Wolfe visibly pulled himself together and said, “We’ll talk about this after class.” 

“But _why_ don’t you appear -”

“Santiago, I trust I don’t need to remind you how many places remain in this postulancy.” 

Jess felt the power in the room teeter at Wolfe’s clear desperation not to answer that question. 

Only the threat of failing held everything in place. They all knew Wolfe didn’t make empty threats. 

Wolfe had just placed chalk to chalkboard to illustrate the answer to the question he'd first asked Jess when the classroom door burst open. 

“Scholar Wolfe,” said an out-of-breath Library servant. “The Artifex requires your presence.”

“Now? At the servant’s nod, Wolfe snapped the chalk between his fingers in what looked like a subconscious display of frustration. “Fine. I will send someone for you all if it becomes necessary,” he said to the class in general as he hurried out in a swirl of his robes. 

They listened in strained silence as his footsteps faded down the corridor. 

“Well,” Dario said in a voice brimming with fake bravado, “that was lucky timing for our dear Scholar, wasn’t it?” 

Jess thought, _Shut up, Dario_ , out of sheer habit, but managed to bite his tongue as he scrabbled for his Codex. Sure enough, searching for ‘Wolfe’ was unproductive. 

There was a silence that somehow buzzed with unsaid words, as they all opened their Codices. 

He caught Morgan’s eye. She looked like she didn’t care. Of course. She had other things on her mind. 

“Maybe Research Scholars write under a pseudonym?” Izumi was frowning and scribbling in her Codex too. 

“Or perhaps he does specialised work, for the Curia’s eyes only?” Thomas had got up from his seat and was tidying away the broken chalk. Jess knew him well enough to recognise the nervous distraction. 

“Maybe he’s a spy,” Danton said, quietly. He was flipping his pen between his fingers.

“Unlikely.” Khalila’s voice was louder than Danton’s, and she drew everyone’s attention. “Spies don’t get unmasked by a class of postulants.”

 “He’s not on the wall, either.” Glain’s simple statement sliced through their theorising. “I read the names while I’m taking a break from running. Got through at least a few decades by now.”

Only Glain could do extra exercise on top of everything else, Jess thought to himself.

She continued, “I wondered if I’d just not found him yet, but given this,” she waved her Codex, “I’m willing to bet his name isn’t there at all.”

“What if his surname isn’t really Wolfe?” Jess asked, almost more thinking aloud than anything else. Morgan, himself, Danton, for certain. All keeping secrets. Were they _all_ keeping secrets, as he’d occasionally considered? Was ‘Wolfe’ just a persona, devised to filter out the potential Library infiltrators?

Well, he hadn’t done a great job, then, had he? Jess thought, with a flash of bravado. 

The bells began to ring. Jess slammed his Codex back into his bag at the third ring, because those weren’t normal peals. They sounded like an alarm. 

Everyone around him was doing the same. Thomas was already at the door, looking out into the corridor. He frowned, and opened the door. 

There was no echoing from the corridor, from the other rooms. 

“They’re only ringing in here,” Dario said, stating the obvious loudly against the clamour.  Jess’ skin crawled. He caught Morgan’s eye again. The skin had gone tight around the corners of her mouth. 

All of them were on their feet now, holding their bags and shifting their feet. The exception was Glain, who was standing poised and still, and that was scary enough. 

As abruptly as they had started, the bells stopped. Heavy, rapid footsteps came up the corridor, and Thomas backed away from the doorway so fast he nearly fell over his own feet as Captain Santi pushed opened the door. 

“That was a summons, postulants. You’re to report to the Scholar’s Reading Room in the Serapeum. Don’t waste time. This isn‘t a test.”

“The pyramid?” Portero said. His voice squeaked, just a little. Santi’s eyes flickered to him.

“The carriage is waiting.” He held the door open and gestured for them to pass him. 

Glain, Jess and Morgan were the last ones out. Glain’s reason for staying was apparent, she demanded of the captain, 

“Is this when we get our appointments?”

He gave her a calm, blank look in return, and she stalked past, shaking her head. 

For a second, Jess got butterflies. Their final appointments. The Reading Room was a grand enough place for that kind of ceremony, he assumed. 

But then he looked at Morgan, who still hadn’t left her seat. All colour had drained from her face. 

He banished the optimism. Stupid of him to even imagine it. 

Wolfe would have known if they were to be appointed today. He hadn’t known that he was going to be pulled out of their class. 

Or perhaps something had changed at the last minute in their appointments. 

He could see his terror reflected in Morgan’s desperate eyes.

Maybe one of them was about to be found out.

 

**Author's Note:**

> I just couldn't wrap my brain around the idea that no-one had ever searched the Codex for their teacher. Is it just me?
> 
> I think this might kind of gently affect the plot, because of how much less they would suddenly trust Wolfe, but bearing in mind that Oxford is the main crucible that bonds them all anyway, I hoped it wouldn't affect it too much! 
> 
> Find my Great Library tumblr here https://thegreatlibraryfangirl.tumblr.com


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